Classic Microsoft Windows verses Ford Motor Company comparison

In 2013 after Bill Gates dissed the auto industry for it lack of progress compared to the computer industry, Ford issued the following press release: (Is it still true today?)

If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

 1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash......... twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

 3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this

 4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

 5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

 6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

 7. The airbag system would ask, "Are you sure?" before deploying.

 8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

 9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

 10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

 PS - I'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call "customer service" in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!

AI IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD!

It's been a long while since I have posted to this Blog but I wanted to create something contemporary and fresh. Unfortunately everything on this topic has already been blogged to death so I thought I would use Microsoft Edge Compose to put something together for me on this topic to demonstrate it's power!

Science Fiction Genre's

I am struggling to find good new science fiction books and I am realizing that one of the issue is that I like certain genre's better but don't know how to quantify or categorize them. So I found this list which may help me to express my favorite style of science fiction.

n Space opera/space western – Melodramatic adventures, often involving space battles (Buck Rogers)

n Utopia – Description of a perfect society, at least in the author’s mind (Ian M. Banks’ “Culture”)

n Dystopia – Description of a society gone wrong (George Orwell’s “1984”)

n Hard SF – Scientific rigor marks the story’s focus (Hal Clement’s “Mission of Gravity”)

n Soft SF – Characterization and ideas about society mark the story’s focus (“Star Trek”)

n Feminist SF – Deals with women’s role in society (Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness”)

n Cyberpunk – High tech in a society that has broken down (William Gibson’s “Neuromancer”)

n Alternate histories – History has diverged from the one we know (Harry Turtledove’s “The Guns of the South”)

n Alternate futures - A possible future never comes to pass, often because a character travels back in time and alters the past (“Back to the Future II”)

n Slipstream - Fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries between science fiction and contemporary literature (Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity's Rainbow”)

n Science fantasy – Elements of fantasy and of science fiction are melded (Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels)

n Dark SF – Elements of horror and science fiction are mixed (the movie “Alien”)

n Erotic SF – Sex and sexuality are explored in a science fiction setting (Lois McMaster Bujold’s “Ethan of Athos”

n New wave – A movement of 1960s, it boasted a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content (Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”)

n New space opera – A movement of 1990s, the stories tend to be more military-themed and literary than original space opera/space western (David Weber’s “On Basilisk Station”)

n New Weird – A movement of the early 21st century, surrealism or transgressive horror is used in a science fiction or a fantasy setting (China Mieville’s “Perdido Street Station”)

A Fine Tax

"A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well"

Computer Heaven and Hell

In Computer Heaven:

The management is from Intel,
The design and construction is done by Apple,
The marketing is done by Microsoft,
IBM provides the support,
Gateway determines the pricing.

In Computer Hell:

The management is from Apple,
Microsoft does design and construction,
IBM handles the marketing,
The support is from Gateway,
Intel sets the price.

Need I say more?

21 Reasons English is Difficult

My wife is a 4th Grade Elementary Teacher who is regularly regaling me with stories of her student's struggle with Mathematics and English. And why not - English is Hard as these example illustrate:

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there was no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen on how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?